Kubicka Honored at New Jersey Sportswriters Association Banquet

Coach of the Year Anita Kubicka with former New Jersey Governor the Hon. Brendan T. Byrne.

Montclair, NJ (1/26/09) – Montclair State softball coach Anita Kubicka was among the honored guests as the New Jersey Sports Writers Association held its 73rd Anniversary Banquet on Sunday, January 25 at the Pines Manor in Edison, NJ.

Kubicka
was presented with the College Softball Coach of the Year award and was
part of a star-studded group of honorees that include New York Mets
All-Star third baseman David Wright, Rutgers quarterback Mike Teel and
New York Giants Super Bowl Most Valuable Player O.J. Anderson.
Also in attendance were former NFL great and ESPN Analyst Joe
Theismann, New York Liberty coach Patty Coyle and former New Jersey
Governor Hon. Brendan T. Byrne (pictured above).

Kubicka was honored for her outstanding career at Montclair State. Over
the past two seasons, no team in the New Jersey Athletic Conference has
been better than Kubicka’s Red Hawks which have gone an impressive 34-2
during that time. In 2008 MSU put together its best conference season
in program history. Montclair did not lose a single conference game
during the regular season posting an 18-0 mark making just the second
NJAC squad in league annals to accomplish that feat. In addition to its
second straight regular-season crown, Montclair also captured the NJAC
Tournament winning twice on the final day to earn its first conference
championship since 1997 and its third overall.

Montclair State completed 2008 with a 43-6 record, setting the school
record for victories and Kubicka and her staff were rewarded as they
captured Coaching Staff of the Year honors from both the NJAC and the
National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA).

Entering
her 19th season at the Red Hawk helm in 2009, Kubicka has far and away
won more games than any other coach in Montclair State softball
history. In fact, she trails only baseball Norm Schoenig (611 wins) in
total victories by an MSU mentor. In 18 seasons Kubicka has fashioned
quite a coaching resume – 587 victories, a .739 winning percentage –
both which rank in the Top 15 among active coaches in Division III.
Thirteen times her teams have won 30-plus games, including nine of the
last 10 campaigns, and she has led the Red Hawks to 10 NCAA
Tournaments. In those 10 appearances are two trips to the national
championship tournament where in 1997, MSU finished as the runner-up.
Montclair has also won seven ECAC championships under Kubicka’s watch
and she has earned several NJAC and Regional Coach of the Year honors.

But Kubicka’s
legacy in Montclair
State softball history
goes beyond the records and accolades on the field. She played a major role in
the construction of the MSU Softball Stadium that gave her team a first-class facility
that matched it success on the field. The stadium opened in 2004 to raved
reviews and is one of the premier softball-only complexes in the East Region.
The stadium served as the home to the NY/NJ Juggernaut of the National Pro
Fastpitch in 2004 and in May will be the site for the NCAA Division III
Softball Championship. It marks the first time that Montclair will host a national championship
tournament and it will be the first appearance in the East by the tournament in
20 years.

Among the list of 55 players to be
named All-American at MSU, Kubicka had coached 35 of them – 15 First-Team
selections, including 1992 NCAA Division III Player of the Year Lois Fyfe.
Kubicka’s teams have also excelled in the classroom raking among the top
academic athletic teams at Montclair State and place several players each year
on the NJAC’s All-Academic Team. In 2008, Jackie Ferranti became the first
female and the fifth student-athlete in school history to be named Academic
All-America.